Letters to the Professor
by Kiraeon
Summary: A series of one-shots from the cast of Fire Emblem: Three Houses to their dear professor. Some of them are diary entries or love/confessional letters, others are more like essays. Some are set in the present, others in the future, and others still in the past.
1. Sleep (Claude)

**_Part Two: Black Clouds.  
Verdant Wind: The Valley of Torment._**

_For Robogart on Twitter; you destroyed my last shreds of self-control over fic writing with a three panel comic. For those who don't follow? Here is the tweet_ _that broke me._

You never do take long to fall asleep.

Back then, I thought it was a game. You know, to see if you noticed me before you fell asleep. A mercenary, as I understood, slept with one eye open at all times and couldn't risk being taken off guard even during sleep. Either you didn't consider me a threat or simply didn't care; you were out like a dropped lantern within five minutes.

The only time you had trouble sleeping was just after Jeralt's death. To tell you the truth? Most of us had trouble sleeping after that. I stood guard at your door for a couple nights before I called it quits and forced myself to sleep instead. As detached as I tried to be back then, even I couldn't stand hearing you cry like that.

It's been five years now and the Teach I knew from before is the same as usual; except where you're not.

You're smaller than you used to be and, not that I'd say it to your face, more vulnerable. Don't get me wrong, you're still Hell incarnate in the war room and on the battlefield- and the glare you give is still about as terrifying as it was five years ago, that's for sure. I still wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of your sword _or _temper either. You're still the pillar of strength we'd all come to rely on five years ago and determined to keep us safe on and off the battlefield.

Maybe it's the way it takes you a moment to recognize your own students, now equal or close enough in age, when we call out to you or that forlorn look you get when she thinks no one's watching. Maybe it's because I can spot weaknesses easier than before, it's hard to say, but you're not this out of reach above-us-all figure we idolized anymore.

You're human: like me and rest of your class and fellow professors.

You said you've been asleep for the last five years, and I believe you; nothing in your face or body language suggested you're trying to hide or lie. I think sleeping is as close to what we could call it, given what little you've told me happened during the battle for Garreg Mach when you disappeared. Honestly speaking, I don't think you know that you were probably in a coma all this time.

Who knows? Maybe the Sword of the Creator had something to do with it. Maybe it put you to sleep long enough for your body to heal. I don't like the idea of you being _that _seriously injured, Teach, but it's as plausible as any other theory out there. Maybe someone with powers like Solon did something to you again.

Teach… you look so tired. Five years later and you're still asleep before your head hits the sheets most of the time.

The first night you came back, I couldn't help myself. I came back to your room, everything the same as you'd left it, and stood guard outside your door like old times. You stood in the middle of the room in silence for a long time, looked to your desk and the schedule you kept, and went to bed. I checked in on you throughout the night. You didn't even move when I opened the door; am I still not a threat to you? Or is it your trust in me that lets you sleep so soundly, knowing full well I'm there? Even sleeping, you look exhausted. Still do. It was hard for me to believe you were there, that it wasn't just another dream I'd wake from, and I'd open the door just to make sure I wasn't dreaming again.

Just what was going through your mind when you saw us all again? What are you thinking about when you see all of us? Have we made you proud?

Hey, I see that little crease in your brow; what are you dreaming about?


	2. Reflection (Edelgard)

_**Part Two: Black Clouds.**_

_**Verdant Wind: Conclusion of the Crossing Roads**_

_Major Spoilers for Golden Deer Arc, Chapter 20._

My Teacher, how splendid you were today.

In truth, I had hoped that you survived the battle for Garreg Mach. I suppose some part of me wanted the chance to show you what I have accomplished, what I have done to disperse with the Church of Seiros and their lies to bring peace to Fodlan.

Did I lose you after Sir Jeralt's assassination, I wonder? Was that where my plans began to unravel? Do not misunderstand, my Teacher, I did not know of or approve of the plan to be rid of your own father. Had I known… well, had I known, I would have found a way to warn you.

At least… I believe I would have warned you. He was all you had, after all, other than the students. After having lost my own mother and soon to lose my father to his ill health… I thought I understood your heart well enough to know how you would respond; with vengeance, with energy, and with the need to eliminate those who took your father from you so that they would never harm another.

But you did no such thing. Not immediately.

Your response to Sir Jeralt's death was… enlightening. It shone a light upon my own familial bonds and my own heart. Even after losing the only family you had left, you fell prey to your grief and sorrow like any other who suffered a loss should have. Therein lies the difference between us; you are not an ageless, timeless, and emotionless entity without peer. You are no divinely blessed figure who is destined to go down, shining brightly, in glory as a savior.

You are mortal. Flesh and blood.

And I detested you for that freedom to collapse into grief. You asked no permission, demanded no time to mourn… you simply did so and that was all there was to it. Even those most cautious and suspicious of you could feel your sorrow, even if they could not see the differences in the way you carried yourself in and out of battle and during your lectures.

Rumors of your return reached me almost instantly. Seeing you once more upon Gronder Field was at once a relief and an additional burden; you made me waiver and question myself once more. Around you, I weakened. I wished to rely on another, to share the burden of my destiny so that I alone did not have to bear its weight.

And you, as you are, you would have shared it with me, wouldn't you? If my assumptions are correct, it would not have been you alone, but the entirety of those who allied with you and myself as well. We all would have shared in that burden, that damnable destiny saturated with blood, and we would have endured together. As one heart.

If I knew then what I do now, would things have been different? Would you have stayed at my side had I asked? Would I be in a better position amid the people of Fodlan?

Would my friends be alive?

Would I still live to see a new day and what my efforts wrought?

I told you that the path to Fodlan's future lay across my grave, that you required the courage and conviction to pursue it and take that necessary step. I demanded that you put an end to everything there and build anew where I destroyed.

I meant it.

You, who seemed to be an echo, a reflection of my own loneliness that stood before me as both my beginning and my end. You who seemed to have everything that I had secretly desired but could not bear to voice my wish for.

I only wished to walk at your side, in the end, so that we might bear one another's loneliness together.

Thank you, my Teacher, and please… do not cry.


End file.
